Sky Box+Dish no sub, what can I do?

Banksey

Good evening to everyone.

So I have a Sky Box and the Sky satellite which were installed last year, I got rid of the subscription recently cause I couldn't afford it anymore so I'm just left with a few channels now.

I've been reading around about my options and where I can go now, but I'm completely useless about most of this stuff and half of what I read has been double dutch. I'm fairly tech savvy but just not in this department.

In my travels I've come across:
Free to air
Free to view
Dreamboxes
Technomates
Starview

Frankly I questioned the last three's reliability and legality. But basically what I'm looking for is just some guidance and where I can go from now and what my options are.

Any help would be appreciated,
Cheers.

John mac

take out the card , unplug the box ,a plug it in after 30 seconds, and you should have all the bbc , itv channels, ch5 and ch4 .

all 100% free and 100% legit.

what more do you want. ?

liamtech

You will undoubtedly get many people advising you on this subject, as there are many options -

For my two pence worth i would purchase a Free To Air or Freesat Box, which will give you an enormous amount of channels 100% free - although these channels can be added via your sky box (i believe it is services add other channels etc) it is far more convenient to have them alone instead of surrounded of hundreds of none functioning Sky channels;

For the record you will receive the following channels free regardless of what box you choose:

BBC1
BBC2
BBC3
BBC4
BBC1HD
BBC-HD
Channel4
Channel4+1
Channel4HD
Five
E4
E4+1
More4
More4+1
UTV
UTV+1
ITV1
ITV1+1
ITV2
ITV2+1
ITV3
ITV3+1
ITV4
ITV4+1
ITV1HD
STV-HD
CBS Drama
CBS Reality
CBS Reality+1
CBS Action
Horror Channel
Horror Channel+1
FILM4
FILM4+1
MEN&MOVIES
MOVIES4MEN
MOVIES4MEN+1
MOVIES4MEN2
MOVIES4MEN2+1
TRUE MOVIES
TRUE MOVIES2
BBC NEWS
CNBC
AL JAZERRA
CNN
BLOOMBERG
SKY NEWS
FRANCE 24 (ENGLISH)
RUSSIA TODAY
LAVA
CHART SHOW TV
CHANNEL AKA
FLAVA
BLISS
DANCE NATION
CLUBLAND
THE VAULT
SCUZZ
VINTAGE TV
and many more...

Your best bet in my humble opinion is to get a freesat box preferably a freesat+HD box, which will give you all the functionality of a sky+hd box (pause live tv, rewind record etc etc). you will also have the full 8 day guide -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-FOXSAT-HDR-Freesat-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001L5YU36/ref=sr_1_13?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1306365973&sr=1-13

Probably one of the best versions available:

On the other hand if your not interested in recording you can get a cheaper box for

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-DS186&pages=1&prod=DS186&brands=SAGEM&image=

Same 7 day guide and channels -

liamtech

John mac wrote: »

take out the card , unplug the box ,a plug it in after 30 seconds, and you should have all the bbc , itv channels, ch5 and ch4 .

all 100% free and 100% legit.

what more do you want. ?

as far as i was concerned this only works for shy sd boxes - the HD units will not revert back to a free to air channels line up UK style

ALSO a sky +HD box will not record anything without a subscription so you will loose the ability to record or pause

montgolfiere

Sky Hd Boxes will work fine as FTA Boxes.
Also with a UK FTV Card (£25) you will receive the FTV Channels as well as the FTV HD Channels. (The FTV card should last +/- 5 years)
However any '+' function does require a subscription to Sky
The Skyman

John mac

liamtech wrote: »

as far as i was concerned this only works for shy sd boxes - the HD units will not revert back to a free to air channels line up UK style

ALSO a sky +HD box will not record anything without a subscription so you will loose the ability to record or pause

my hd box does .

wayne040576

This is something I've been considering doing myself. I have a sky hd sub that is costing me too much as I only watch about and hour of tv a day. I was planning to get the 500gb version of that humax box & buy/rent the odd show on the apple tv.

The only thing I was thinking is that I probably won't be able to get the Irish channels. My tv is a Samsung UE55B7020 which is a 2009 model. I don't know if their digital tuners would pick up the saorview channels.

I don't have an aerial but did a quick scan the other day on its digital tuner with no luck so I'm not sure if I could get away with an aerial or if I'd have to buy a saorview box + aerial.

I could probably live without the Irish channels as I hardly watch them anyway but there's always that occasional show that pops up on them. The ability to record shows is very important to me as I don't have time to watch anything live.